I'm impartial to these, though not a fan of them overall, especially Hulk. I welcome the prominent return of Medium Green with open arms, however.

I also find myself liking Iron Man and Batman in spite of myself. Perhaps it's the recolors.

I worry about the price, however. Obviously it will be higher than normal due to the fact they're licensed, but taking Ben 10 into consideration, I fear a $20+ price for these guys.

I hope these do not replace Hero Factory in the 2012 lineup; all signs point to Hero Factory continuing, but I can't help that lingering feeling in the back of my head that tells me Lego doesn't need two superhero themes.

With the announcement of Superhero Minifigs, I'd been hoping that something like this would come along as well!

Firstly, I hope that these aren't the only four action figures for the first wave of sets, as this will likely replace Hero Factory temporarily at least. I'd have suspected Superman and a regular Batman, but the Blue Batman gives me doubts.

I'm very excited about the very concept of this theme, and I'm sure it'll be very popular and successful - it's like Ben 10 but with real pieces* and a hook on the AFOL market . As a whole I'm not sure that there are quite enough new pieces to properly represent the superheroes (such as using 2.0 Hero feet and armourless forearms), but the likeness is definitely there.*I personally love Ben 10 pieces, but many people disagree...

The biggest thing that has me excited are all the recoloured and new pieces! Mata Green, Gold Villain pieces, 2 new torso pieces and what looks like a 2M bone on Batman's legs. I suspect that there are new finger pieces for Hulk as well, or at least hope.

I love that you can tell some of these parts are still early prototypes. Hulk's head and chestplate as well as Iron Man's head (and possibly Batman's too) are all 3D rapid prototypes - that's why they look kind-of sand-like and rough.

I love that you can tell some of these parts are still early prototypes. Hulk's head and chestplate as well as Iron Man's head (and possibly Batman's too) are all 3D rapid prototypes - that's why they look kind-of sand-like and rough.

BIONICLE and Hero Factory sets at Toyfairs have usually used such prototyped and painted pieces, but these are especially rough and possibly missing altogether. But this is nothing compared to some of the preliminary minifigures.

CarsonBrick, on 21 July 2011 - 07:46 AM, said:

I'm glad that LEGO is working with them but these "action figures" aren't worth getting in my opinion. Sure there may be a few cool pieces but it may not be worth the price. Who knows?

In general there seem to be a similar/slightly less quantity of pieces than the villain sets of the past two waves, so hopefully they will stick to the same price range.

*facepalm* In my opinion Hulk and Batman are horrible. The only decent ones are Iron Man and Green Lantern. No offence to the people that like Batman and Hulk though. But I do love the new molds and recolors.

The recolours here would certainly make for great HF parts packs. As representations of the superheroes in question... not so much. As far as licenced LEGO goes, this is the most questionable rendering I have ever seen. I find myself completely perplexed why the Lantern and Iron Man have these enormous shoulderpads, or why Hulk has this big strip of silver armour across his shoulders. And come on, there has GOT to be a better way to render Batman's capewings; this is just lazy even by the dreadful standards of HF. At this point I'd say the Lantern is the most well-done here, since he could pretty much just do with losing/trimming down those unspeakable shoulderpads and rotating the thigh plating to the front (all of them need that, from the side it just looks awkward). The Hulk desparately needs armour plating on his shins and forearms, and by extension the longer shin pieces; at this point he just looks silly.

I guess it's prototypical and the sets will be refined before they hit production and sale, but still... not a promising first look. Come on, LEGO, pick up your game kthx.

What was your head doing in Hogsmeade, Potter? Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.

A SUPERHERO came out of the Bionicle office, ehh, I mean Hero Factory office.
Ammo belt piece is fantastic.

I hadn't even considered the reason that Iron Man's torso armour had those holes, but now I'm very intrigued. Seeing as Batman is the superhero that absolutely must have a utility belt piece, this goes to show just how preliminary these sets are. So the final sets will have a lot of changes, and there is lots of hope for the weaker sections of these sets.

I don't suppose you could clue us in as to whether Hero Factory will be running alongside this come 2012, or whether HF has been canned in favor of this? That's the question that I really need answered, because I just don't see these sets as a viable replacement for HF.